There’s Still Snow!
Posted: June 1, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: access, gates, snow, trees Leave a commentThe plan was to go in through Blackwood Canyon and up the Middle Fork Trail (15N38) and clear trees to the summit. If we had time, we were going to head down the Red Cabin Trail (upper hobbit/Barker Meadow OHV Trail, 16E79) and then down the actual Hobbit Trail (16E76).
Well, the gate at the bottom of Forest Service Road 03 was still locked. Long story for later. So, we headed over to the Rubicon to go around the back way.
When we got to the intersection of the Rubicon and Forest Road 03-04, we took 03-04 toward Barker Pass. It wasn’t too long before we found trees that needed attention. This is actually the third tree we removed. The first was on the Rubicon and people had stacked rocks to get over it!
Some were so rotten, we just pulled them to the side. So many times I forgot to get out the camera.
This one took some rigging for the winch to be able to pull it to the side.
As we got around the north side of Ellis Peak, the snow became deeper. The snow wheeling was actually pretty fun. The snow kept traction as long as you were going stupid slow.
We made it past Bear Lake but the northern aspect protected the snow and it was becoming quite a side hill.
Here is the guy in front of me dropping down the last hill we went down.
We finally came to a downhill section we decided we didn’t want to crawl back up. We turned around and headed home. The side hill was pretty steep right here but it doesn’t show.
We never made it over to any of the three trails we were trying to get to. I will be looking into the situation with the locked gates.
On the way out, We stopped at the Rubicon intersection and met two side-by-sides going out 03-04. They were locals who had been clearing trees on a bunch of side trails for the last three weeks! Awesome.
I need to thank Stan and John for hanging out today. Always safer with others. Maybe we’ll get out next week and clear more trails.
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Rubicon Ronin
The 'Other' Rubicon 